Additional Options

Options

ThePhotostick has additional back-up options available. These can be accessed by clicking on the "Options" tab, making any option changes, and then clicking the "Ok" button to save.

Copy options:

Consolidate all files into a single directory-- By default, ThePhotoStick will consolidate your photo and video files into a single folder for easy and convenient access. ThePhotoStick stores your photo and video files on the USB stick in the directory path: <ThePhotoStick drive>\My_Files\<computer name>. SeeViewing files saved to ThePhotoStickfor additional details.

Skip duplicates-- When consolidating files into a single directory on ThePhotoStick, ThePhotoStick can skip any duplicates it finds. Often times, the same photos and videos can be saved in various places on your hard disk drive. Having "Skip duplicates" checked will result in only one copy of that file being copied to ThePhotoStick. If you uncheck this option and ThePhotoStick finds a duplicate file, it will copy the duplicate file to ThePhotoStick and rename it on ThePhotoStick to <filename>_copy-#.

For example, say there is a photo file called DSCF0566.JPG, and it is saved on your hard disk drive at C:\Users\ricky\pictures\DSCF0566.JPG, C:\photos\DSCF0566.JPG., and C:\Users\ricky\Desktop\pics\DSCF0566.JPG. ThePhotoStick will copy the first of these DSCF0566.JPG files, C:\Users\ricky\pictures\DSCF0566.JPG, as normal to ThePhotoStick as DSCF0566.JPG. When it goes to back up the next DSCF0566.JPG file, C:\photos\DSCF0566.JPG, it will see that a file called DSCF0566.JPG is already on ThePhotoStick, so it will analyze the file further to verify if they are true duplicates of each other. If they are, and "Skip duplicates" is checked, it will make note it found a duplicate but not copy this file to ThePhotoStick. If "Skip duplicate" is not checked or if the files are not true duplicates of each other, the file will be copied to your ThePhotoStick as DSCF0566_copy-1.JPG. The process is repeated again when it goes to save the third DSCF0566.JPG file, C:\Users\ricky\Desktop\pics\DSCF0566.JPG. It will see that there is a DSCF0566.JPG and DSCF0566_copy-1.JPG file already on ThePhotoStick, so it will check if this third DSCF0566.JPG file is a duplicate of DSCF0566.JPG or DSCF0566_copy-1.JPG. If so, it will not save it again. If neither is a duplicate, then it will copy it to ThePhotoStick as DSCF0566_copy-2.JPG. For this example, assume ThePhotoStick is running on a Windows computer named "mywincomp" and was given the drive letter F:.

Original File Path on HDD

File Back-up Path on ThePhotoStick

C:\photos\DSCF0566.JPG

F:\My_Files\mywincomp\My_Photos\DSCF0566.JPG

C:\Users\ricky\pictures\DSCF0566.JPG

F:\My_Files\mywincomp\My_Photos\DSCF0566_copy-1.JPG

C:\Users\ricky\Desktop\pics\DSCF0566.JPG

F:\My_Files\mywincomp\My_Photos\DSCF0566_copy-2.JPG

Exclude Photo/Video files smaller than-- By default, ThePhotoStick will skip and not save any files smaller than 100kb. Generally, any picture or video files smaller than 100kb are system or application images and not user photos or videos. This value can be adjusted to any size that you prefer. For example, if you want all photo and video files saved no matter how small they are, you can change the value to "0". Likewise, if you know your photos are all bigger than 2MB (the approximate size of a 8MP camera), you can change this exclude value to 2MB and fine tune the photo back up.

Advanced Options:

To view the advanced options for ThePhotoStick, click on "Show Advanced Copy Options..."

As you can see above, the Advanced Copy options are:

Maintain source directory structure-- This option will not consolidate all photo and video files into <ThePhotoStick drive>\My_Files\<computer name>\My_Photos and <ThePhotoStick drive>\My_Files\<computer name>\My_Videos. With this option, ThePhotoStick will separate your photos and videos into the directories My_Photos and My_Videos, but it will maintain the entire path structure to the file. Also, because each file maintains its original directory path, there will never be a duplicate on ThePhotoStick USB stick, so skipping duplicates is not a selectable option when using "Maintain source directory structure".

For example, say there is a photo file called DSCF0566.JPG, and it is saved on your hard disk drive at C:\Users\ricky\pictures\DSCF0566.JPG, C:\photos\DSCF0566.JPG., and C:\Users\ricky\Desktop\pics\DSCF0566.JPG. If "Maintain source directory structure" is selected, all three of these files will be saved to ThePhotoStick whether they are duplicates or not. They will be saved to ThePhotoStick in the following way. For this example, assume ThePhotoStick is running on a Windows computer named "mywincomp" and was given the drive letter F:.

Original File Path on HDD

File Backup Path on ThePhotoStick

C:\photos\DSCF0566.JPG

F:\My_Files\mywincomp\My_Photos\photos\DSCF0566.JPG

C:\Users\ricky\pictures\DSCF0566.JPG

F:\My_Files\mywincomp\My_Photos\Users\ricky\pictures\DSCF0566.JPG

C:\Users\ricky\Desktop\pics\DSCF0566.JPG

F:\My_Files\mywincomp\My_Photos\Users\ricky\Desktop\pics\DSCF0566.JPG

Copy Thumbnails in iPhoto Library-- On Mac computers, when this option is checked, ThePhotoStick will copy all the iPhoto Library thumbnails in addition to all the Master (original size) photo files. This option is less common since iPhoto will automatically generate new thumbnail images when importing the Master photo files.

Debug logging (Support Only)-- On occasion, ThePhotoStick support may require more detailed logging when investigating an issue. This option turns on detailed logging and is only recommended to have on for small periods of time and as directed by ThePhotoStick support. Having it always on can impact performance.